Controversial BBC iPlayer launching this fall; open beta on July 27

The BBC finally spills the details on the launch of iPlayer, a standalone …

The BBC has announced a date for its iPlayer "catch-up" service: the product will at last be available in "open beta" on July 27, with a full public launch happening in the fall.

The iPlayer is a standalone application that will let UK residents download TV shows up to seven days after they air on television, and it will cover all shows from across all BBC channels. Complete shows are downloaded to a user's hard drive, where they can be kept for up to 30 days before expiring. Once a user starts to watch the show, he or she has seven days in which to complete it.

The timing restrictions are enforced by Microsoft DRM, a move that has generated controversy from open-source advocates and Mac users, both of whom will be left in the cold at launch. The BBC claims to be working on a solution as quickly as possible, calling Mac support something that is "absolutely on our critical path."

The BBC also announced that a version of the app would be forthcoming for Vista, suggesting that iPlayer will be XP-only at launch.

Eventually, the content available through the iPlayer can be watched in other ways; the BBC and Virgin Media are partnering to launch a video on demand (VOD) system for BBC content by the end of the year.

The iPlayer has been in closed beta for some time, with 15,000 users hammering away on it, and the July 27 "launch" date is actually just an "open beta." While it's open, it will also be "controlled," so interested users are not guaranteed the opportunity to check it out until the "full marketing launch" in the autumn.